The present invention relates to a roller guide apparatus particularly as an aseismatic apparatus for buildings or like structures for guiding a rolling motion thereof.
A rolling guide apparatus utilizing a rolling motion of rolling member has been known as an aseismatic apparatus in prior art. That is, buildings or like structures are supported to be movable with respect to base portions thereof through rolling guide apparatus so as to make it difficult to transfer vibration or the like of the base portion to the building, and in order to support a building having heavy weight or large size, there have been utilized rollers, as rolling members, which have load capacity larger than that of balls.
However, because the roller, which is different from the ball, has no automatic aligning ability, when a degree of parallelization (parallelism) of a track rail and a movable block constituting the guide apparatus is not good, there is a fear that an overload is generated to both bilateral end portions of the roller and, hence, the roller and the track surface are damaged. Even if the roller and the track surface are not damaged, these members are liable to be worn and the durability thereof will be deteriorated. The parallelism of the track rail and the movable block is generally based on performance of mounting surfaces of structures or members to which the track rail and the movable block are mounted. However, with the structure of the building, it is impossible to require for a base portion, as the mounting surface or a mounting portion of a building, to have a high mounting performance as is required for a machine tool or the like.
Incidentally, the rolling guide apparatus as the aseismatic apparatus generally has two types of structure, one utilizing a linear track rail and the other one utilizing a curved track rail in which the track rail is vertically bent so as to follow a locus of a curvilinear motion caused at a time when the building is bent downward. In the former one structure utilizing the linear track rail, kinetic energy of the building which is moved linearly along the linear track rail is absorbed by a damper means, and on the other hand, in the latter one structure utilizing the curved track rail, oscillation energy of the building is converted through the curvilinear motion to potential energy which is then absorbed.
FIG. 17 shows a conventional rolling guide apparatus as an aseismatic apparatus utilizing the curved track rail. The rolling (roller) guide apparatus 501 comprises: a first track rail 504 having a circular track surface and secured on a base (foundation) 502; a first movable block 503 supported to be movable by the first track rail 504 through a roller, not shown; a second movable block 506 operatively coupled on the first movable block 503; a second track rail 505 secured to a building structure 500 so as to be supported by the second movable block 506 through a roller, not shown, to be relatively movable in a direction normal to the first track rail 504; and a inclination absorbing mechanism 507 coupling the first and second movable blocks 503 and 506 so as to absorb the inclination therebetween. As the inclination absorbing mechanism 507, a universal joint or an elastic member has been utilized for absorbing the inclination through elastic deformation thereof.
Such inclination absorbing mechanism is disposed for the following reason.
The building structure 500 is supported by the base 502 through a plurality of rolling (roller) guide apparatus 501 and performs the circular curvilinear motion along the surfaces of the track rails 504 and 505 while maintaining its horizontal attitude. Now, supposing that the first movable block 503 is moved from the lowermost position of the first track rail 504 towards the longitudinal direction thereof, an inclination in the longitudinal direction of the upper surface of the first movable block 503 varies and the second track rail 505 secured to the building structure 500, however, maintains its horizontal attitude. If such condition be maintained, an excessive stress is applied between the second movable block 506 and the second track rail 505, and in such case, these members will be damaged or the first movable block 503 will not move. For these reasons, in the conventional art, the inclination absorbing mechanism 507 is provided between the first and second movable blocks 503 and 506 to obviate such defects.
However, in the case where the elastic member, universal joint or other inclination absorber is utilized for such inclination absorbing mechanism 507, the maximum load to be born (supported) depends on the elastic member, and accordingly, it is difficult to adequately utilize the high load bearing (supporting) ability of the guide apparatus using the roller or roller means.